It’s easy to assume the leading name Fortune 500 Their days are filled with back-to-back meetings, endless phone calls and dinner dates. But Bill Gates wishes he had learned to free up diary space early in his career, a technique Warren Buffett is known for.
The Microsoft co-founder has always been open about his work-life balance (or lack thereof) while leading the massive tech giant.
But Gates said in an article published on the Meta platform Threads that he no longer believes that a mountainous schedule is a guarantee of productivity. He retweeted an article about how being less busy can make people happier, writing: “It took me a long time to realize that you don’t have to fill every second of your schedule to be successful.
“(In hindsight, I could have learned this lesson sooner had I known more about Warren Buffett’s deliberately simplified calendar.)”
The 68-year-old entrepreneur and philanthropist gave a candid reflection on his life working at Microsoft and what he would do differently if he could call it quits. During an appearance on his own podcast last year, Clear up my confusion with Bill GatesAccompanied by guests comedian Seth Rogen and Rogen’s wife, Lauren Miller Rogen, Gates revealed that he once ranked himself against other people based on how much time he seemed to waste sleeping.
“When I was in my thirties and forties, when someone would talk about sleep, I would say, ‘Oh, I only sleep six hours,'” Gates told the couple. “Another person says ‘Oh, I only sleep five hours,’ and then ‘Well, sometimes I don’t sleep at all.'”
“I’d say ‘Wow, those guys are awesome, I have to work harder because sleep is lazy and unnecessary.'”
Years later, now worth $154 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Gates said he has realized that good sleep is “super important” for brain health, following the footsteps of his father, Bill Gates Sr. Death, a topic that became increasingly important to him.
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But Gates not only pushes himself to extremes, he expects the same from his employees. Last year, Gates told Northern Arizona University graduates that when he was their age, he “didn’t believe in” holidays or weekends at all.
“I forced everyone around me to work long hours,” he told students in May. “In the early days of Microsoft, my office overlooked the parking lot, and I would keep track of who left early and who came late. But as I got older, especially After becoming a father, I realized there was more to life than work.
Buffett Method
A turning point where the father of three may have decided to change his schedule came after Gates learned how Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett manages his time.
In an interview with Bloomberg in 2017, when Buffett and Gates dropped out of Harvard after three semesters, Gates said one of the lessons he learned from the Oracle of Omaha was the beauty of the freedom to schedule.
“I remember Warren showing me his calendar. I planned every minute to the fullest, and I thought that was the only way you could do things,” Gates said. “In fact, he was very careful with his time… He would sometimes have nothing to do.”
Gates added that business is not “a proxy for your seriousness.” Buffett chimed in: “Basically, I can buy anything I want, but I can’t buy time.”
In addition to traveling the world for charity, Gates is now devoting more time to hobbies like reading and listening to music — something that shows in the highlights he often shares on his blog GatesNotes.
Buffett, meanwhile, doesn’t appear to be putting much effort into finding balance. Featured in 2005 wall street journal Buffett reportedly spends a large portion of his day “reading and thinking,” with the $135 billion tycoon adding in 2017 that he “likes to sleep” and “doesn’t want to go to work at four in the morning.” .
